Detour
by Chiyala
Summary: In which Natsu tries to read Lucy's writings and Gray runs away.


**Written for Gratsu Week 2016, day 4: Lost & Found. Enjoy!**

 **This is a collaboration with the artist 'Selenba'. For the version with her art + my text, please find me or Selenba on tumblr and read it there.**

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"Natsu! Give it back!"

But Natsu wasn't thinking about giving Lucy her manuscript back. She wouldn't let him read it, but he wanted to so badly. She was chasing him around the guild hall, with little success - until she started using her whip and got help from Lisanna and Levy. Now the girls were crowding him into a corner, and Natsu was frantically thinking about a solution, when Happy appeared over their heads, and held out his paws. Natsu threw the book towards him without thinking twice; Happy caught it perfectly and ascended higher, until he was well out of reach of any of the girls. When the three of them turned their backs towards Natsu, he sighed in relief. They could be really scary. Levy was about to use her solid script to get to Happy, but Lucy was quicker. She threw her whip towards Happy, and it tangled around him and his wings. Happy didn't let go of the book though. He sailed towards the floor and the waiting girls, and Natsu jumped into action immediately. He caught Happy like an infant a few meters above the floor.

While he was crouching over Happy and untangling him from the black leather band, nobody tried to get at him. He distantly noted that Lisanna was called to the bar by Mirajane, and that Gajeel was distracting Levy. That left over only Lucy, and she didn't hesitate to pin Natsu to the floor as soon as Happy was free and out of the way. He wasn't going to give up so easily, though. He stretched out his arms as far as he could, bringing the book as far away from Lucy as his current position allowed him to.

Lucy glared at him, but then moved a bit upwards until she was sitting astride Natsu's abdomen, and reached up, which led to her breasts being pressed against his face. He felt the book slip through his fingers. There was no way he could give up so close to his goal, so he turned them over in a quick motion. Now he was on top of Lucy, her legs around his hips, his hands pinning Lucy's wrists to the floor.

"That's a real **man**!" Elfman shouted from somewhere.

"Get a room, you two," Erza commented with an annoyed undertone.

Soon there were whistles and lewd comments coming from everywhere in the guild, but Natsu ignored them all in favor of the book that was lying close to Lucy's head. He brought her wrists together, and pinned them over her head with one hand, while reaching for the book with the other.

"NO! Don't read that!"

 _... He moaned loudly when Eric licked a stripe from base to tip. His hips bucked upwards on their own volition at the feel of Eric's sinful lips around the head of his cock..._

Natsu blushed and turned a few pages.

 _"Oh yes, ah, harder, yes, ahh, right there- oh god, yes! You feel so good inside my ass-"_

He slammed the book close, released Lucy, and scrambled to his feet. He hadn't seen that coming. She was writing porn, and not just any porn. She was writing _gay porn_. No wonder she didn't want anyone to read it. However, it was her own fault for bringing it to the guild hall.

When he looked up, Lucy was getting to her feet as well, her face bright red and tears of humiliation stinging in her eyes.

"Luce, you shouldn't let anyone read this. It's so cheesy I fear my teeth might rot."

He thought this was the least awkward solution: Lying about what he'd read. If there was porn that late in the manuscript, there must've been some romance in it, right?

Lucy staggered a bit, but caught herself quickly.

"Well, I _tried_ not to let anyone read it, but _somebody_ stole it and read it anyway!"

Natsu shrugged nonchalantly. He saw Lucy's fist coming, but he pretended not to. A second later a smacking sound resounded in the guild hall and a burning ache spread in his cheek. Lucy turned on her heels and stormed out of the guild hall, leaving him standing there all dressed up with nowhere to go. For a second, everything was silent, but then the people returned to their everyday business, mocking each other, drinking beer, shouting across the guild hall, those things.

Natsu sighed. He would wait until Lucy had calmed down, and then apologize to her. He turned around and searched for Gray. He let his eyes wander over everyone present in the guild hall twice before he turned to the closest guild mate - Alzack - and asked him if he knew where Gray was.

"He left the guild in a rush a few minutes ago, and he didn't say where he was going. His expression was really weird, too."

"His face is always weird."

Alzack rolled his eyes at the dragon slayer.

"He looked like he's in pain."

* * *

 _Gray... Where are you?_

Natsu was out of breath. He'd already searched for Gray _everywhere_. He wasn't under the bridges of Magnolia, in any of the boats on the river, on any rooftop close to their guild. Hell, he'd even searched nearly all trashcans and all of the three bars in Magnolia. He'd been kicked out of every one of them _("We're not even open yet, get the hell out of here!")_ , two of the owners had even thrown cutlery or cans after him when he'd started searching under their tables.

Where the hell could Gray still be? He was leaning against a house front, looking around frantically, as if hoping that the ice mage would suddenly appear in the middle of the street. He had no such luck. Instead, he found a boy, maybe around the age of ten, approaching him with a curious face.

"Hey, mister. You've been running around for quite a while. Are you searching something?"

Natsu managed an exhausted smile.

"Yeah, I'm searching my best friend."

The boy crooked his head. "Maybe he's just at home? Have you been there already?"

Natsu's jaw dropped. No, he hadn't. He quickly patted the boy on the head, then took off again.

* * *

Gray was indeed close to his home. Natsu kicked himself internally that he hadn't thought of this before. He sped up even more, and when he came to a halt just behind the bench Gray was sitting on, he was panting heavily. He rested his forearms on Gray's hair, and leaned over him, looking him into the eyes, upside down.

"Here you are! I looked for you - everywhere! Juvia is sad, she - won't stop crying because she couldn't - find you. She's going to drown the guild at this rate. Master asked me to find you with my nose." He was still panting, but managed to speak without needing to gasp for breath every few words. "Seriously... I spent almost three hours searching for you!"

He let out a heavy sigh. "I'm going to tell her you're here now. Next time, at least inform someone before disappearing like a goddamn thie-"

"I ran into Juvia two minutes before you got here," Gray interrupted him. _What, seriously?_ He hadn't even noticed that Juvia wasn't in the guild hall. Damn, he should've thought about his excuse more seriously.

"We talked a little. She was very happy. No trace of tears in her face. She told me she couldn't go to the guild today because she had an important errand to do and she asked me to tell the others about it."

 _Ah... Well, shit._

Natsu had taken a step back from the bench. Gray sprawled out on the bench, showing off his muscular upper body. "Let's talk more about _you_ searching for _me_ everywhere for _three hours_. You've got my attention."

Natsu's face was burning with embarrassment. When he hadn't said anything after a while, Gray raised his eyebrow and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards. "Well?"

Natsu was thinking about fleeing, but then Gray would mock him even more later. There was no way he was going to admit that he'd been genuinely concerned about this stupid popsicle. Deflect the question, it was.

"Why did you run away in the first place?"

Gray's smile fell, his expression going serious all of a sudden.

"I couldn't stand seeing you and Lucy acting like _that_."

Natsu's heart clenched. _No, no, no. Please, no..._

"Luce? I didn't know you were into her, why didn't you say anything?" he managed with what he hoped was an apologetic expression.

Gray got to his knees on the bench, and leaned over the backrest. He pulled Natsu's face in for a quick peck on his lips, then let go and jumped to his feet in the blink of an eye.

"Because I'm not into _her_ , dumbass. Come on, let's go back to the guild!" And with that, he started running.

Natsu stood there dumbfounded for some long seconds. He brought his hand up to touch his lips, and slowly realization dawned on him. A smile spread out on his features, and he set off to chase Gray all the way to the guild, the smile never leaving his face.

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